A Tale of Ten Lives
by vegesaurus
Summary: It's no secret that ladybug cannot stand the presence of chat noir, and that chat noir cannot live without his lovley ladybug. But what happens when our heroes must work together to save a child not only from the physical threat posed by an akuma, but perhaps something deeper within the heart that all three of them can share? All readers welcome, known or unkown to ladybug. :)
1. Chapter 1 - A New Arrival

_ _ **Chapter One_**_

 _ **~A New Arrival~**_

 _Miraculous ladybug is not owned by me. All characters belong to the creator of miraculous ladybug. The story is mine._

"And that, my lovely students,"

Madam Bustier bubbled lightly as if a feather marking her life were dancing on her breath, "is why the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell." She looked around the room with a decisive glint in her eyes, scanning the room for any untied knots in the form of questions. For a few silent moments, the kids who were interested and not busy being distracted gazed around them, curios of the possible curiosity that they could not come up with themselves.

A young child nearing age sixteen timidly raised her hand, determined to fulfill her unanswered woes. Her dark blue hair with two tear drop-shaped pigtails, held together with the same amount of hair bands, sparkled in the artificial and natural light mixture that weaved in the air, and landed on the fair skin that her elevated fingers so elegantly demonstrated.

"Madame," She began. A small number of the teenagers gave a slight groan of boredom mixed with regrettable anticipation; of course Marinette had a question. "I'm not quite sure I understand how glucose is able to make it to the mitochondria."

"Well my dear," Madame was about to answer, before being rudely interrupted by an exceptionally irksome sigh presented by none other than Chloe.

Chloe must have been at least three quarters artificial. Her clumped up hair strained into a painful ponytail, trying fruitlessly to seem soft, with product, which also made the natural part of her blond to become unnatural and almost impossible. Her eyes were advertisements for countless cosmetics unknown to the low or even middle class frenchmen. The only reason that this teenage-like goldilocks could afford every new object that waddled her way was because of her father, the beloved mayor of paris, who hadn't the heart not to hand her a ticket to spoil her daughter putrid. Chloe rolled her pupils around the white of her eyes in a stressed manner that didn't seem all to genuine.

"Oh. My. God." she digressed in a detestable fashion. "Madam, you've already explained this to her at _least_ a hundred times by now. She doesn't _deserve_ another explanation!" Marinette frowned aggressively, her thin lips making way to the dimples of frustration brushed on the bottom of her cheeks, and leading up to arc the bottom of her eyelids, painting them narrow, and furious. She was about to protest, but Madam was quicker, and cut through the dilemma with a short, controlled breath.

"Miss Chloe. Some people need some more time to learn certain material." she curtly explained. A dark skinned boy, tanned from both the sun and genetics, bearing a bright basketball hat split up in three happy sections of red, blue, and green, and a loose t-shirt matching his loose khaki shorts, gave a soft, provocative chuckle.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you chloe?" He laughed at his own joke, along with the rest of his class, those paying attention, and even those who didn't pay attention. The ever-so-polite children in the front of the class were able to muster a chuckle for their classmate. Even Madam had to crack a smile at the sheer wit that nino had to offer. Chloe looked around frantically, seeking comfort in her misery, but even her servant, masked as her best friend, couldn't help but blush with viscosity at her own shame of trying not to laugh. Needless to say, she was failing. Chloe growled at the class, cheeks flushed dark pink in a defeated rage. Defeated or not, however, she did not understand the concept of losing a fight, and would go to great measure just for the world to mutter "Chloe is right".

"Well at least I'll understand the material at some point!" she countered. "I don't think you could get a single sentence memorized in the thick, disgusting skull of yours!" Nino was surprised, eyes wide and mouth hung open just enough to notice his milk white teeth, that Chloe still had the audacity to speak back. He wasn't prepared for a comeback, and an awkward, short pause ensued, tension stirring. Chloe grinned maliciously, under the impression that she had successfully defeated nino.

"Stop it Chloe! Class, please, sit down." Madam Bustier was growing impatient trying to teach the class, with her fingers tapping steadily on her desk, while she leaned her weight into her knew and up against her arm, holding on to the table. Most of the students obeyed, whether they liked it or not, because it was a habit en grained in them that they always had to listen to their elders. However, Chloe, being daughter of the mayor, had no need for manners, values, or education for that matter, and remained standing.

"No! This is _unfair_! Nino has _accused_ me of being _stupid_!" started chloe one more, victimizing herself in what would seem to be a mock, but turned out to be genuine.

"What?! Oh so says you, miss "at least I learn"!". sparked up Nino again, ira burning in his eyes.

"I'm with nino on this one!" agreed Marinette. "He may have started it, but you finished it."

"I think," a boy in the very front of the class, sitting right next to Nino began. His pastel yellow hair spiked to the left of his round and fair skinned face. His face was stoic of all emotions, save calm, and the aura resonating from his black t-shirt with three stripes covered with a dress shirt was under control, as if everything was going to be alright. "I think that, while Nino may have made a rude, and casual comment, Chloe took it to a whole new level that was not necessary."

"Class, _please._ We must get back to the lesson."

"Adrien! I can't believe you would side with him instead of me!"

"I-I...um…" Marinette giggled, drunk off adrien, then suddenly realized her gaze was locked on adrien and scurried clumsily to look elswhere. "I adrien agree. I-I mean! Adrien I agree with. N-no, I-" Marinette struggled to fund her words. She frantically looked all over the floor with a face red as a ladybug.

"She agrees with adrien." Alya, the girl to Marinette's left, spelled out in Marinette's rescue. Her lovely red hair curled elegantly on her shoulders with enough poof to frame her slightly tan face, and yet not enough to make her seem uninterested in dressing up and acting as a teenaged girl might. She gave a side grin to Marinette, her best friend, who returned a sheepish smile. 'I have to thank her later' Marinette thought to herself.

"Why, I can't believe this!" Chloe was enfuriated, her dimples digging deep holes, and her nose scrunching up to the power of her blond, made up eyebrows. "When my father hears about this-"

"ENOUGH!"

Silence befell the whole room, and everone, even chloe, sat down like soldiers at the orders of the teacher, who had reached a new level of rage.

"I try to make learning fun in this classroom, because I know that learning about how plants grow isn't the funnest thing for everyone, but time and time again, I am welcomed to class with an armful of bickering students, who only care about who did what, where, and who, and I have just about _had it_ with this class! You have a test tomorrow on what we were supposed to learn today. You have the rest of class to study, or fight, or do whatever you want, but I will not be a part of it!" with her last words spewing out of her mouth, she stormed out, her high heels clashing against the cold false-marble of the school floors, and the door slammed shut. Even it was afraid of the ticking teacher.

Silence continued for a few moments. Many though this was a joke, others thought perhaps Madam would come back and forgive herself, but most people were simply lost, and hadn't the slightest on what had just happened. It was evident, however, after a few minutes, that Madam was done for the day, and would not be returning.

Nino turned to Chloe, his anger slowly returning to his blood.

"Look what you've done now! You made Madam go mad!"

"It's not _my_ fault that she doesn't want to teach her class!

"Guys…" Marinette seem to have a slight disagreement against Chloe still, but she seemed willing to put that aside. "It doesn't matter what happened or who was wrong. We made Madam mad, and that's not ok. We should find out a way to apologize to her as a class." She looked around for nods of approval, or new ideas. Her face melted when she noticed adrien was the first one to nod.

"She's right." He sided with marinette. "We should start with a card, and maybe figure out flowers and such after."

Mumurs of agreement settled between students. Chloe rolled her eyes, disgusted, but was on bored anyways. And with that, the class began preparing to make their beloved Madam feel at home again.

The window screen bore a live broadcasting of a gentle school teacher overcome by emotions. A masked, and ominous man veiled with a sharp purple dress suit around his bony figure chuckled with untrue intentions.

"How agrivating it must be, trying to tend to a group of children with no intentions other than wrecking havoc and making a joke off teachers." He grinned widley, his thin lips curving up and into his mask. "I love it." He snapped his fingertips to his palm, and one of the many butterflies of creme color cane to his comand. He covered it up with his hands, and a dark magic brewed into the wings of the butterfly, and on to its soul. "Go my beauty, into the briefcase of the victim who will be our ticket to glory." The dark butterfly flew among its white companions, and fluttered out the window graciously. Moments passed before the screen of the teacher revealed her to have stopped dead on her tracks, with a red hawk painted on and above her face, and a dark element surrounding her briefcase. "Welcome to class, Lady Learning. I am hawk moth. I can grant you the power of teach those pesky children the true meaning of knowledge, but in return i ask for two simple items. The miraculous of mine stolen by ladybug and chat noir. Will you comply?" The school teacher grinned, just as ill-intentioned as the other.

"Anything for teaching." The darkness enshrouded her, starting from her briefcase, and ending at her head, and upgraded her to a woman with a crimson red mask with the standard graduation veil and cape, and with a hand bag in her arms filled with nothing but ungraded papers.

"Alright class. Let us begin..."

_ _ **End of chapter one**_ _


	2. Chapter 2 - Where Children Belong

_ _ **Chapter two_**_

 _ **~Where Children Belong~**_

 _Miraculous ladybug is not owned by me. All characters belong to the creator of miraculous ladybug. The story is mine._

 _AUTHOR'S NOTE: I loosely plan to try and release a new chapter once every week or so on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, however I make no firm promises, for I cannot do anything when under time pressure. Thank you all for understanding. :)_

"Hey, where's the glue?"

"Right here! Hold on I'm using it."

"Who has the flowers? I could use them to design her a scarf."

"I don't know. I think Alya was supposed to bring them."

"What? I was?!"

"Chloe! Are you even doing anything?!"

"The card, you idiot! I'm making it pretty!"

Panic had overcome our team of young adults. The ones who normally fell silent during class became anything but, frantically search for items, and diligently following orders in a rushed formation by the chatty half of the class, whom were known to speak up a lot or simply paid attention. Clearly Marinette, giving orders, stitching cloth, sprawling about everywhere looking for things she needed and seeking comfort in Adrien, who had offered to help her out, had taken responsibility of the Grand project that the students troubled themselves with. It only made sense though; Marinette was elected class president after all.

"Alya!" she called frantically, trying to get the attention of her best friend over all of the commotion. "I need more thread! What are we gonna do if we run out of thread?! Oh this is a "Guuuurl you need to _calm down_ , ok? Nothing's gonna get done if you can't even sort out your own thoughts." The blue haired beauty sighed.

"I guess you're right. I just want to get this done so Madame won't feel so-" Her sentence was cut short. The north wall of the classroom crumbled to the ground, taking with it screams of surprise, shrieks of shock, and facades of fear. Moments passed in silence before the rubble settled to show the familiar faced woman in unfamiliar garbs.

"Oh no…" muttered Marinette. She know better than anyone the darkness behind the dust wall. "Everyone! Run!" She shouted. A wave of students rushed to the door as quickly as they could, but in vain. Lady Learning cackled as she flung a paper to the door. A big F surrounded it, and a line crossed through it, impeding the students of ever hoping to escape. The teacher grinned as she grabbed a dark haired student by the arm. She squealed, and started bawling, gagging at the salt of her own tears.

"What is the square root of an imaginary number?" the teacher asked with a certain sensual peak in her voice.

"I-I don't know! Please let me down!"

"Wrong!" she growled fiercely as she dug deeply into her bag and slapped on a paper with another big F on it. The student screamed as her skin shredded into ink and white wood, and her voice chopped and shriveled into the sound of a saw. She had disappeared, and a stack of failed exams had taken her place. The rest of the students gasped. Was this their fate? Adrien frantically searched the room for a decent area to expel his second form. He was so caught up in his task, that he didn't notice Marinette doing the same thing, trying desperately to carve out the big failing letter grade from the door. She finally gave up when her effort did not contribute to the dissipating child. She decided to look around for a vent, or some shaft, that could lead her away from the ravishing eyes all peeping to her in fear of their lives. Lady Learning exalted at this. "Soon I will rid this world of the children who don't pay attention in class! Who will be next on the spot light?" She looked around the class, bubbling in evil snickers as she picked out her victims in order one by one.

"I'll go." every flash of sight whipped to the blonde boy of ripe age. Marinette gasped.

"Adrien, no!" she blurted out, having no time to think of her love tearing up to mere shreds of failed answers.

"Marinette, let him! You'll have longer to live!" protested Alya. She seemed much too calm for the ordeal. "Besides, Ladybug will save us once she sees we're in trouble." Marinette grimaced. _There won't be a ladybug at this rate_ she barked in her mind. Adrien was already taking the first step towards Lady Learning, ignoring the female dilemma. Marinette blotted out Alya's voice for a moment.

"W-wait!" she stuttered, face flushing red. "If you go, I go!" Adrien blinked, not quite understanding. "I-I mean, two heads can answer a question better than one!" Adrien flicked his eyebrow up, dubious of this idea, but shrugged, allowing her to gleefully step by his side, despite the situation.

"When I say cats," He whispered ever so subtly, with a warm, firm voice of confidence in her ear, she trying her hardest to focus. "No matter the context, jump out the window. There are three cloth roofs below to break our fall. It's our only chance." Marinette nodded.

"let's do it."

Lady Learning chuckled with a cold wisp clasping through her deep blue lips.

"Two for the price of one, eh? How enchanting." She raised her bag and pulled out a paper, getting ready to fail the two of their lives. "How did the Chinese government suffer and why in contrast and comparison to African lives in the south?" Adrien paused, as if thinking of the impossible question. An understanding dawned on Marinette. He was trying to tap into the element of surprise. She also pretended to look pensive.

"I think," Marinette began, taking the wheel. "That both civilizations intended cats to be their main mascot." Adrien grinned at his clever partner, and tipped his weight out of the window alongside Marinette before the antagonist had time to react. Screams of the class above up roared at the witnessing of two of the brightest students basically committing a suicide act together.

"Hold on tight!" Marinette shouted as she clung to Adrien with arms that caressed his smooth skin, which the wind felt necessary to expose. Adrien held her back with just as much enthusiasm, though not as much for love than for life. They had one common goal at the moment while they cascaded through the air; _I can't let the other one die in my arms._

The landing came much sooner than expected. They tore through ceilings of cloth, felt, and even glass. Despite the long fall, both Marinette and Adrien found poles and creases in the imperfect walls to hold on to for split seconds to slow down while descending, through habit. Adrien was obviously better at it though. The way he swung in perfect harmony with his breath, inhaling, exhaling, made it perfectly clear he had done this before. Marinette, on the other hand, was more clumsy, missing every occasional chance to slow her fall, in which case Adrien would have to catch her. She had no yo-yo to control herself. Such activities made their fall much less harsh on their bodies, and the only harm they had gotten was a few scratches here and there, and a light gash on Marinette's chin, barely visible.

"Marinette!" Adrien breathed, exasperated. He laughed a bit, rushed with adrenaline. "I didn't know you could do gymnastics like that!" Marinette blinked, and flushed a dark red.

"Oh! Yeah. Ummm...well, i-it's a hobby." She grinned a toothy smile, the white of her teeth shining in contrast of her skin painted red from her blood. "You are... ah, um… they must teach you a lot in that fencing...class…" Her stutter and choppy sentences made her insecurity undeniable. Adrien smiled despite this.

"Yeah. I guess you could say that." his grin evaporated as he exited his daze and slowly recalled the events that led to the need of jumping out the window with haste. "You should go home." Marinette nodded, forgetting her own feelings of being with Adrien. It was Ladybug time.

"I'll see you later." She receiving a nod in response, and both parted ways both regrettably, and thankfully.

Once successfully alone, Tikki, the red ladybug-like figure with huge blue eyes and a black dot on her forehead, accompanied by two antenna, popped out of Marinette sweater.

"That was way too close Marinette!" she scolded worriedly. Marinette sighed.

"I know. I'm sorry. But it'll be ok now." they both smiled, knowing exactly what came next. "Tikki! Spots on!" The small Kawami whirled into her earrings, brushing them red with five black dots. Her skin slowly morphed into a red cloth , hiding everything but her face, save a mask around her eyes. She grinned, once finished transforming, and detached her yo yo from her hip, making a faint click sound, and swung forth towards her school, wrapping the delicate looking yet indestructible toy around poles, gutters, and chords hung over the buildings.

Marinette, disguised as ladybug, swung up to the window were trouble brewed. The sight was monstrous. Already four more stacks of papers were in place of four of the students, and the remaining teens looked devastated, eyes wide in pure horror. Marinette gasped as she looked around hastily. Alya. She couldn't find Alya. She took a deep breath, and told herself it would be alright, so long as she could trap the Akuma. A sharp cackled reached her ears behind her.

"You're late Ladybug. I think it's only fair to give ten weeks of detention!" a sea of homework flew in Marinette's direction. She spun her yo yo with a fierce speed, breezing off the papers, and allowing them all to harmlessly fall to her feet before traveling back to Lady Learning's bag. The sheer amount was a bit too much, however, and her feet began sliding backwards, scraping the white ceramic tile black. She growled, frustrated at her inability to stand her ground.

A sudden flash of black, and the paper wave was gone, replaced by a chat, pinning her to the ground. Adrien, posed as the sexy chat, was dressed in pure black latex. Two cat ears perked up on his ears. Upon first look, it would seem they were nothing more than two small clip on's, costing a dime each at the dollar store, but it blew France's mind to see that they moved swiftly at chats command.

"Hello again, my lady. It seems you need learn how to harness your inner chat." He grinned, laying his emerald green eyes softly on Marinette's face. _How does she always manage to be so purrfect?_ Marinette rolled her eyes, and sighed.

"When are you ever serious?" She asked rhetorically, and with sassy intonation. As if on cue, Lady Learning finally caught her grip, and sent chat noir flying with a push of viscosity. Marinette swallowed hard. She knew Chat would recover from the blow, no sweat. "Chat, take the class and get them all to their houses. I'll try to lead her to a different place. Her Akuma must be in her bag." He nodded with a grin.

"Anything for education." Marinette pretended like she hadn't heard such a God awful pun, and instead threw her yo yo at Lady Learning.

"Hey!" shouted at the dark being, regaining her footing from Adrien's attack. Lady Learning's face suddenly flushed an artificial red.

"Take her miraculous!" shouted Hawk Moth from within her own mind. She grimaced, but suddenly flashed a toothy grin. A wave of papers began surrounding her, fluttering and crinkling around her, creating wind.

"Of course, Master. I am true to my promises." She tried grasping on to her foe, but the other was quicker. Marinette flipped gracefully over to the window, flashing black and red to the eyes of the curious and wonder-struck, and swung away from the petite classroom, and onward to the city. She had stopped caring much about creating a mess in Paris, for she knew that a quick Lucky Charm could fix everything up in the end. Just as she thought, a huge ruckus behind her screeched, and papers flew all over Paris, and the poor unlucky souls who happened to touch an exam or failed report instantly shredded to mere paperwork, and was carried off in the wind.

Marinette stopped at the park, and tried to come up with an idea to try and give her a few seconds to grab the bag while she did her best deflecting papers from herself and from the curious yet terrified pedestrians. Chat pulled up behind her.

"Everyone is safe. I stacked the papers in chairs, and took most of the kids at school home." he attempted to poke Lady Learning with his extending rod of sorts. He failed, as he could not penetrate the sea of hateful grades.

"Most?" asked Marinette in a bit of confusion, noticing Lady Learning needed her bag opened to be able to use anything.

"Yeah. There was this one kindergartner who didn't know where to go, so I told him to wait for me in the class."

"What? A kindergartner at the school? It's a high school!"

"I know, I thought it was weird too, but-" a flying paper with a close call cut him short. "We can _chat_ about his later." Marinette nodded in agreement, not bothering to notice his sassy little intended pun.

"Try to close her bag, but don't touch any of those papers. The Akuma has to be in her bag. Chat grinned.

"Cataclysm!" He shouted, his hand seeping in darkness, and sparks of sheer power radiated from his dark, long animal nails. He began clawing at the great masses of white dyed paper. It worked for a short amount of time before Lady Learning caught on and commenced directing all of her attention towards Chat Noir. This made Marinette grin. Perfect. Now she had time to use her power.

"Lucky charm!" her dainty yet firm voice shouted as she threw her yo-yo up in the air. It spinned for a moment or two, before finally returning to her hand, along with a red battery run fan with black spots smeared all over it, and a black button. She looked at her item, distraught. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

" _Blow_ us away, my lady." A faint electronic clicking sound could be heard; Adrien was down a claw on his black ring with a green, vibrant paw, the symbol of his power. "But please, do it fast!" His cataclysm was beginning to wear off, along with the Kawami hidden below the ring.

Marinette, looked around, still taking advantage of Lady Learning's distracted view. She was visibly lost, before a light returned to her teeth, now flashing wide in a grin. She locked her yo-yo around the teacher's foot, and made her trip with a sickening _**crack**_. She howled in pain; her backbone was most probably destroyed, but it bought Marinette time to swing around back of the fountain, a monument belonging to the region, and turn the fan on, spraying both lady Learning and Adrien with cold, piercing liquid. The vile Lady in black shuddered. Her graded papers were drenched, and rendered useless.

"Chat! Now!" Adrien complied, and nimbly kicked the bag close. Another beep. He was running out of time. Marinette jumped up gracefully in the air, and stomped right on top of the bag, causing a huge gash, and ultimately destroying it. A butterfly pulsing black fluttered out innocently. Marinette zipped her yo-yo at it. The toy opened up, revealing a white zone of pure space, and trapped the winged insect inside, closing immediately after. Marinette pulled her yo-yo back to herself, and tapped it, allowing it to open up again.

"Gotcha!"

The same butterfly left, flapping it's way out, but it had changed. No longer was it black, but instead pure. White. Free.

"Bye bye little butterfly~!" She giggled happily, knowing her mission was a success. She threw the fan up into the air, and it released a sparkling beam of crimson and black velvet beauty, engulfing the papers on the desks of the class and returning then to their former human bodies, fixing the crumbled wall on its way out, and reestablishing peace to any kind of chaos the Akuma may have inflicted, before returning back to Marinette. She looked back at Lady Learning. Already darkness was boiling out of her skin, and her true self, with a tight ponytail and a sweet overall nature fell on the floor, exhausted, but with enough strength to sit up and sooth her pounding head.

"Where…?" Chat simply chuckled at his teacher with hair pulled back loosely in a disorganized pony tail.

Elsewhere, lurking in a building in a corner of France where not even the most intricate explorers had found yet, a vile, heartless master of butterflies spat furiously at his nemesis' winnings, risking being heard from his awful threats.

"Damn you Ladybug! I almost had you for once! I could almost _feel_ your miraculous' in my hands! I could just _breathe_ my rightful power vibrating down my spine! Mark my words Ladybug. I _will_ lay my hands on your power, and when I do, you and your precious little Chat will have wished that history had never begun in the first place!" He growled as the window televising his slaves closed, marking his defeat, and tucking Paris back into peace for the time being.

Back on the solid where Adrien and Marinette lingered, victory flooded the air. Adrien recognized the smell of another battle successfully tackled by holding out a friendly fist, or perhaps better said paw, out to Marinette, who complied, relieve of the stress of Paris not being pounded to demise.

"Nice job!" they both bubbled simultaneously. Two electronics beeps could be hear. Four out of five spots were left on Marinette's earring, and Adrien only had to claws and a paw left glowing on his ring.

"I'd love to stay charm my way to your heart," began Chat, disappointment resounding through his voice. "But it seems we both have places to go." He smiled at her regrettably, and she smiled back, with a friendly sort of _sorry_ in her crystal blue eyes. "Adieu." bid the lovesick fool as he jumped up a roof. Another beep. Marinettes eyes widened, and she suddenly gasped.

"Wait, Chat!" She shouted, preparing the yo-yo to follow him, but it was unnecessary. He was grabbed on to a pole, about to leap, but instead sung backwards to face the spotted heroine.

"Yes, bugaboo?"

"The kid at the school!" Her voice strained for Adrien to hear her from such a distance. "Do what you have to do, and meet back there as soon as possible!" Adriens bright face darkened with seriousness, and he nodded. "And for crying out loud, stop calling me bugaboo!" Adrien smiled lightly, eyes still serious. Second to last beep. He ripped his eyes away from his love, and lept away to the Agreste mansion for his identities sake. He should have been jumping for joy; he was going to see lady bug again in a few minutes at her request, but he couldn't lighten up. He was too uneasy.

The boy. What was a boy doing at his school? At a high school? Kids didn't belong in high schools.

 _Unless...unless he shouldn't be there in the first place..._

_ _ **End of chapter two**_ _


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